DETROIT — State universities in Michigan increased spending
on administrators by 30 percent, on average, over the past five years, while
faculty compensation went up an average of 22 percent, according to the Detroit
Free Press.

The number of administrative jobs at public state
universities grew by 19 percent from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010, on average, the
Free Press reported, much higher than average increases in student enrollment
or state funding. The report was based on data from the House Fiscal Agency,
according to the Free Press.

University representatives told the Free Press that the
extra spending on administration is needed to attract and retain top personnel
and also that the number of credit hours has increased, even if enrollment has
not, so more employees are needed.

“It's still a small number,” Michael Boulus, executive
director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, told the
Free Press, referring to the $260 million increase in administrative spending
across 15 universities.

“When you add a rare-isotope machine” at Michigan State
University, “you're going to be hiring” professionals to run it, Boulus told
the Free Press.

But accounting professor Howard Bunsis, treasurer for the
faculty union at Eastern Michigan University, told the Free Press, “There are
too many administrators making too much money.”

“Universities are enlarging their payroll” while “at the
same time consistently beating the drum that the state has to appropriate more
money to them,” said Michael Van Beek, education policy director for the
conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “There's a lesson here in
bureaucratic bloat.”